“Refuelling your body with nutritionally poor food is like refuelling a finely-tuned sports car with cheap petrol. You just wouldn’t do it, unless you wanted your hard-earned investment to perform badly.
After a workout your muscles are damaged and depleted. But they are also biochemically primed to absorb nutrients and eating, or refuelling, after hard exercise is the quickest way to start the recovery process. This in turn will help your body respond better as you increase your training.
It’s important to start refuelling your body within the first 30 minutes of completing your training. I do this with 15-25g of high quality protein such as chicken, yoghurt or cheese alongside 1-1.2g of carbohydrate per kg of body mass. For example, if you weigh 60kg you’d eat between 60-72g of carbohydrate – that’s around one and half bagels, or a 200g sweet potato.
But the refuelling process doesn’t stop there. Within the first hour post ride it’s important to continue to replenish your nutritional stores by consuming a meal that has a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water. Do this and you will be well on your way to giving your body what it needs to perform at its best, just like that supercar.